"How To Write Trade Magazine Articles"

How To Write Trade Magazine Articles

by Jeff Berger, CEO, JMB Communications

For years, executives have regarded trade magazine articles as something akin to manna from heaven. When I managed to get one client’s product on the cover of his industry’s leading trade magazine, I remember him waltzing around his office saying, “We’re on the cover of The Rolling Stone,” to anybody who would listen. (Actually, it was Semiconductor International.)

Covers are very tough to come by, but getting editorial in magazines isn’t difficult provided you know what the magazine wants and are focused on helping them, not yourself.

Focus: What Is The Magazine Trying To Accomplish?

No well-run magazine has any remote interest in writing or publishing anything for free about your new product. They’ve had it up to here with “solutions” – everyone has been selling under this euphemism for 20 years, touting “best of breed” or “best in class” and, as one CEO characterized it, focusing on their own belly buttons.

Nobody cares.

Magazine editors sell magazine subscriptions (and controlled-circulation magazines sell ads) only if the editorial communicates highly useful information to the audience.

What is useful? Certainly not product pap.

Before you prepare an article for submission to any magazine, dive into these questions:

Who’s the audience, and what kind of information does the audience want? Usually they want ideas that will help them do their job better (faster, easier, less expensively, with increased system uptime, more productivity, etc.)

What does the magazine promise? Every magazine has an editorial “promise” – something it tells readers it will deliver to them. Any editorial you propose should help the magazine’s editors deliver on their promise.

How can I meet the needs of the magazine and its audience? Your article’s focus needs to be on issues of pivotal consequence to readers – issues such as productivity, safety, efficiency, innovation, dealing with competition, etc. You must offer information or ideas which can make a material difference to the reader’s business.

Ask the right questions. Your article must answer a number of the audience’s central questions, such as –

How can I design, buy raw materials for, manufacture, market, or distribute my product more efficiently, more productively, with better quality and durability, etc.?

How can I leverage the business potential of the Internet?

What are other people in my business doing that is faster, better, cheaper, more customer-oriented, easier to use, etc.?

How is the need for my product growing, changing, shrinking, being made obsolete?

How can I make my own product and those of my competitors obsolete, by blue-skying ideas which enable my customers to do the things they need to do in a different, better (faster, cheaper, more efficient, less dangerous) way? Once I do this, how can I achieve a uniqueness that insulates my company from would-be competitors?

What are my customers doing that should influence how my business works?

Are environmental, legal, regulatory, or other issues looming which may impact my business?

Clearly it would be absurd to try to answer all these questions in every article you write, but if your focus is on some of these areas, your article stands a better than average chance of being read and acted upon – a fact which can only help the magazine in which it is published.

5.        Use customer experiences. Few communications sell as effectively as customer testimonials. Avoid “pap” pieces which spout heavenly irrelevancies: stick to useful information that really can help readers. Selecting customers to approach for testimonials / case studies is an art in itself, as is interviewing them properly. Three quick hints about selection: 1) pick customers who love your product and who do not also use any competitive product; 2) be sure the customer has been with you long enough to have experienced ups and downs, and who believes in your product and its capabilities enough to stick with you versus actively considering competitors; and 3) be sure your contact has signed an authorization to do the article in advance, from those who actually make the decisions. Keep the length from about 800 to about 1500 words; shorter articles explore the subject too superficially, while longer articles seldom hold readers’ interest. It’s also prudent to use an experienced outside writer to do these, since he or she can easily ask more probing questions than an employee – and you can get far more insight from the answers. That insight can be valuable to your sales, support, product development, and quality efforts.

6.      Work with the magazine’s editorial calendar -- and work closely with the editor. The single best position any PR person can find himself or herself in with relation to working with magazine editors is to be considered such a valuable resource that the editor calls for suggestions when setting up the following year’s Editorial Calendar. Orient everything you do for the magazine toward helping the editor fulfill the magazine’s editorial objectives. Focus articles in the months when they dovetail appropriately with the editorial calendar: shoehorning is painful and counter-productive. Offer application-specific photography which helps illustrate the editorial. (A photo library is useful even when your editorial is not used.) Create articles which reinforce the value of the subject they address, and thereby reinforce the editor’s decision to include that subject in the editorial calendar. Be easy to reach – by phone, email, whatever. Make sure the editor can access any needed information quickly and without hassle, through you or someone else who is easily reachable. Give weekend contact information if requested. Anticipate editors’ needs and meet them before the editor asks.

7.      Write light. Except if you’re writing for an ultra-scholarly publication, write “light” – that is, be economical in the number of words you use and their tone. Act as if every word you write costs you personally $5. Keep the tone pleasant, conversational, and above all informative and germane. Never waste the reader’s time.

Perhaps the ultimate measure of the value of any story you propose or have an experienced freelancer (Jeff Berger, for example) write is the “so what.” Once you read the article, ask yourself: “So what?” If the story is of consequence, your answer to “so what” will constitute a review of the value of the article. On the other hand, if you respond to the article “so what” by shrugging your shoulders, know that the editor will do the same – and you’ve wasted your time.

The Last Word. If you take away only one thing from this article, it should be audience orientation. If you ensure that your assigned writer orients everything he or she writes to the needs and wants of your audience, you can’t possibly miss.

About the author

Early during his 30+ year writing career, Jeff Berger was a police reporter for radio and TV stations, a newspaper columnist, a magazine editor, a National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) Registered Representative who wrote about legal, tax, and investment trends, and a travel writer. Then, in the 1980s, he started working in high technology and in finance, where he has focused much of his energy ever since.

Currently, Jeff creates PR programs (including substantial work with magazines), marketing communications, and websites for technology, financial, hospitality, and other B2B and B2C clients worldwide. He writes for such companies as AT&T, Compaq Computer, Parametric Technology Corporation, and IBM.

In 1990, Jeff started his own company, JMB Communications . JMB serves clients worldwide.

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Updated January 3, 2004